1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to umbrella structures, and more particularly, to a collapsible umbrella structure with hand protection, which is constructed in such a manner that can help prevent the user's hand from being injured when the user is using his/her hand to manually open or collapse the umbrella.
2. Description of Related Art
An umbrella with a collapsible mechanism allows the user to collapse the umbrella for easy storage or carriage when the umbrella is not in use. When raining, the collapsible umbrella can be either automatically opened by an elastic means or by manually stretching the umbrella with hand after a stopper is released. A conventional collapsible umbrella structure is shown in FIG. 1. It is to be noted that throughout this specification, the terms "upper" and "bottom" are referred in reference to the normal orientation of the umbrella when being used to shield from sunshine or rain; i.e., "upper" refers to a position substantially near the fabric side of the umbrella, while the term "bottom" refers to a position substantially near the handle side of the umbrella.
As shown in FIG. 1, the collapsible umbrella structure includes a main shaft 1 on which an upper pressable stopper 11 and a bottom pressable stopper 12 are provided. Moreover, the collapsible umbrella structure includes a frame of radiating ribs 2 for supporting the shielding fabric of the umbrella and a running hub 21 at which the radiating ribs 2 are centered. In collapsed state of the umbrella, the running hub 21 is positioned at the bottom pressable stopper 12 which can stop the running hub 21 from moving upwards. To open the umbrella, the user needs just to press down the bottom pressable stopper 12 and then use hand to manually move the running hub 21 upwards until it is stopped from moving downwards by the upper pressable stopper 11. Another type of umbrella is provided with elastic means that can move the running hub upwards automatically.
Detailed structure of the upper pressable stopper 11 is shown in FIGS. 2A-2B, wherein FIG. 2A shows the upper pressable stopper 11 in pressed state, while FIG. 2B shows the upper pressable stopper 11 in unpressed state. As shown, the upper pressable stopper 11 is formed with a stop portion 111 and a substantially L-shaped bendable leg 112. Further, the stop portion 111 is formed with an inclined portion 1111 on the bottom side and an erect portion 1112 on the upper side, which is substantially in perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the main shaft 1.
When the running hub 21 is being moved upwards by the user's hand, it will first meet and urge against the inclined portion 1111 of the stop portion 111 of the upper pressable stopper 11, thereby pressing the stop portion 111 into the hollowed inside of an elongated slot 13 in the main shaft 1, as illustrated in FIG. 2A, thus allowing the running hub 21 to pass through the upper pressable stopper 11. After passing through the upper pressable stopper 11, the stop portion 111 can be restored to the surface position from the slot 13 due to the elasticity from the bendable leg 112. As a result, the running hub 21 is abutted on and thus stopped by the erect portion 1112 of the stop portion 111 of the upper pressable stopper 11 from moving downwards, as illustrated in FIG. 2B, thereby allowing the radiating ribs 2 to be extended out to support the shielding fabric (not shown) of the umbrella.
To collapse the umbrella, the user needs just to press down on the stop portion 111 of the upper pressable stopper 11 by hand. This allows the running hub 21 to be released from the stoppage by the upper pressable stopper 11, and thus can be moved downwards back to the bottom position, whereby the umbrella is collapsed.
FIGS. 3A-3B are perspective views of the collapsible umbrella structure of the invention, which are used to depict the operation of the umbrella. When collapsing the umbrella, the user would habitually use his/her hand to grab the main shaft 1 and then move his/her hand upwards along the main shaft 1 until his/her hand touches the stop portion 111 of the upper pressable stopper 11. The user can then press down his/her hand upon the upper pressable stopper 11 to allow the stoppage on the running hub 21 to be removed. In the conventional collapsible umbrella structure, however, the elongated slot 13 is customarily formed by machine cutting, which would cause the edges of the elongated slot 13 to be so sharp that they can cause injury to the user's hand when the user's hand touches the elongated slot 13. Moreover, the upper pressable stopper 11, due to its sharp edges, can also cause injury to the user's hand.